ShareThisBy THOMAS HARGROVE
Scripps Howard News Service
More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.
The national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they "personally are more angry" at the government than they used to be.
Widespread resentment and alienation toward the national government appears to be fueling a growing acceptance of conspiracy theories about the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Suspicions that the 9/11 attacks were "an inside job" _ the common phrase used by conspiracy theorists on the Internet _ quickly have become nearly as popular as decades-old conspiracy theories that the federal government was responsible for President John F. Kennedy's assassination and that it has covered up proof of space aliens.
Seventy percent of people who give credence to these theories also say they've become angrier with the federal government than they used to be.
Thirty-six percent of respondents overall said it is "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them "because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East."
"One out of three sounds high, but that may very well be right," said Lee Hamilton, former vice chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also called the 9/11 commission.) His congressionally appointed investigation concluded that federal officials bungled their attempts to prevent, but did not participate in, the attacks by al Qaeda five years ago.
"A lot of people I've encountered believe the U.S. government was involved," Hamilton said. "Many say the government planned the whole thing. Of course, we don't think the evidence leads that way at all."
The poll also found that 16 percent of Americans speculate that secretly planted explosives, not burning passenger jets, were the real reason the massive twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed.
Conspiracy groups for at least two years have also questioned why the World Trade Center collapsed when fires that heavily damaged similar skyscrapers around the world did not cause such destruction. Sixteen percent said it's "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that "the collapse of the twin towers in New York was aided by explosives secretly planted in the two buildings."
Twelve percent suspect the Pentagon was struck by a military cruise missile in 2001 rather than by an airliner captured by terrorists.
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That lower percentage may result from an effort by the conservative Washington-based Judicial Watch advocacy group to debunk the claim. The group filed claims under the Freedom of Information Act and got two fill loops released from Pentagon security cameras.
"Some people claim they can't see anything, but I see a plane hitting the Pentagon at incredibly high speed," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "I see the nose of the plane clearly entering the frame of one video and the tail of the plane entering the Pentagon in the other video."
Many conspiracy Web sites have posted the video loops and report the films are inconclusive or were manipulated by the government.
"Some folks will never be convinced," Fitton said. "But I'm hoping that these videos will dissuade reasonable people from falling into a trap with these conspiracy theories."
University of Florida law professor Mark Fenster, author of the book "Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture," said the poll's findings reflect public anger at the unpopular Iraq war, realization that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction and growing doubts of the veracity of the Bush administration.
"What has amazed me is not that there are conspiracy theories, but that they didn't seem to be getting any purchase among the American public until the last year or so," Fenster said. "Although the Iraq war was not directly related to the 9/11 attacks, people are now looking back at 9/11 with much more skepticism than they used to."
Conspiracy-believing participants in the poll agree their suspicions are recent.
"I certainly didn't think of conspiracies when 9/11 first happened," said Elaine Tripp, 62, of Tabernacle, N.J. "I don't know if President Bush was aware of the exact time it was going to happen. But he certainly didn't do enough to stop it. Bush was so intent on having his own little war."
Garrett Johnson, 19, of Manassas, Va., said it was "well after the fact" before he started questioning the official explanation of the attacks. "But then people I know started talking about it. And the Internet had a lot to do with this. After reading all of the different articles there, I started to think we weren't being told the truth."
The Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University has tracked the level of resentment people feel toward the federal government since 1995, starting shortly after Timothy McVeigh bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City. Forty-seven percent then said they, personally, feel "more angry at the federal government" than they used to. That percentage dropped to 42 percent in 1997, 34 percent in 1998 and only 12 percent shortly after 9/11 during the groundswell of patriotism and support for the government after the attacks.
But the new survey found that 77 percent say their friends and acquaintances have become angrier with government recently and 54 percent say they, themselves, have become angrier _ both record levels.
The survey also found that people who regularly use the Internet but who do not regularly use so-called "mainstream" media are significantly more likely to believe in 9/11 conspiracies. People who regularly read daily newspapers or listen to radio newscasts were especially unlikely to believe in the conspiracies.
"We know that there are a lot of people now asking questions," said Janice Matthews, executive director of 911Truth.org, one of the most sophisticated Internet sites raising doubts about official explanations of the attacks. "We didn't have the Internet after Pearl Harbor, the Gulf of Tonkin or the Kennedy assassination. But we live in different times now."
Matthews' Web site averaged 4,000 "hits" a day last year, but currently has at least 12,000 visits every 24 hours. The site, according to its online policy statement, is dedicated to showing the public that "elements within the U.S. government must have orchestrated or participated in the execution of the attacks for these to have happened the way in which they did."
Participants in the poll were asked to respond to "several serious accusations that some people have made against the federal government in recent years." Five conspiracy theories were described and participants were asked if each was "very likely, somewhat likely or unlikely."
The level of suspicion of U.S. official involvement in a 9/11 conspiracy was only slightly behind the 40 percent who suspect "officials in the federal government were directly responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy" and the 38 percent who believe "the federal government is withholding proof of the existence of intelligent life from other planets."
The poll found that a majority of young adults give at least some credence to a 9/11 conspiracy compared to less than a fourth of people 65 or older. Members of racial and ethnic minorities, people with only a high school education and Democrats were especially likely to suspect federal involvement in 9/11.
The survey was conducted by telephone from July 6-24 at the Scripps Survey Research Center at the University of Ohio under a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
(Thomas Hargrove is a reporter for Scripps Howard News Service. Guido H. Stempel III is director of the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University.)
There is always more then one version
all versions are theories until the science verifies them to be fact!
Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?
http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html
Scholars for 9/11 Truth
http://www.st911.org/
Emotions aside ... time to learn something
All of you conspiracy flakes keep claiming "Physics" and you all refer to Professor Steven E. Jones at BYU, the only physics professor who was confused enough to support your theories.
"In a paper posted online Tuesday, Jones suggests that "pre-positioned explosives," not planes, were what brought down the three World Trade Center buildings — the two Twin Towers and WTC 7. Jones' article, which has been accepted for peer-reviewed publication next year, can be found at www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html."
Well it looks like his peers reviewed it and trashed it. You might still be able to find it on Consiracy Theory web sites but you won't find it at any credible physics site.
If you are interested in the physics behind the collapse you might find this site a bit more accurate.
CLICK HERE
And what do we learn?
How High Are You? This so-called "Explanation" only works if you accept the lower 70 or so stories of the buildings to act as a "vertical spring"? Your "physics" is a belief that the Twin Towers were giant Slinky's? Can I have some of what you're smoking? Because I'd really like to know what it's like to be such a vegetable as to be able to buy what you are selling.
the.digital.da.vinci
"These transactions, now recollected but as dreams in the night, were then sad realities; and nothing rescued us from their liberticide effect, but the unyielding opposition of those firm spirits who sternly maintained their post in defiance of terror, until their fellow citizens could be aroused to their own danger, and rally and rescue the standard of the constitution."
Thomas Jefferson
9/11
So, was 9/11 an inside job? Let me start by saying that I was a BIG Bush supporter -- I campaigned for him in 2000 and 2004. I contributed to his campaign. I happen to be a Pilot/Engineer/Physicist. In September of 2006, I saw video dot google dot com for the first time... In MOST POPULAR, I saw a documentary called "LOOSE CHANGE". Wow -- I was mad that anyone could say this stuff about W and Cheney -- I loved these guys.
But I continued to watch. Once I finished, I watched about 35 more videos on 9/11. As I watched AND DID CALCULATIONS, I realized all the lies we have been told. With the aid of my schooling, I came to 100% certainty that 9/11 was an inside job. This is only my conclusion -- watch at least 15 minutes of ANY of these videos, and make your own conclusion. If you have not watched 15 minutes of one of these videos, and say 9/11 was performed by Arab terrorists -- you are misinformed!
Larry Silverstein took over the lease for the WTC 6 weeks before demolition charges brought down the twin towers AND BUILDING 7. Building 7 was demolished at 5:21 pm on 9/11. Bet you never heard about Building 7... A HUGE 47+ story scyscraper that was part of the WTC, that just happened to house the CIA / SEC Headquarters / Ghouliani's command center... 20 minutes before building seven collapsed, a BBC reporter reported it's collapse -- with the building clearly visable over her shoulder -- don't beleive me? -- google it... President Cheney is a monster -- Haliburton is now rich beyond measure, and the lives of the Americans that died on 9/11 paid for it. GOD HELP US GOD BLESS AMERICA GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES D AMNED TO H ELL CHENEY D AMNED TO HE LL W DA MDED TO HEL L THE NWO
Why isn't someone investigating this
What you said is exactly what I think. I watched everything I could find on the Internet on 9/11. I am convinced the buildings were brought down by explosives. There is no way that jet fuel could have melted all the steel in those buildings at that one instance when they collapsed, that is, if it melted any of the steel at all. That, however, could be conjecture. What I don't understand is why there has been no investigation of Building 7 that was brought down (admittedly by Larry Silverstein) on the same day with explosives. With the chaos in lower Manhattan on 9/11, there was no way anyone could have set explosives to bring down Building 7. It had to be primed with explosives days or weeks before 9/11. Who did that, and why? Why isn't anyone asking those questions? Where is our media? Where is our free press? Where are our muckraking reporters? If someone were to question the implosion of Building 7, might they not think about the two towers and how they too came down in their own footprints? How can we get people to look at this and understand that perhaps our own government was somehow complicit in this catastrophic event. Thanks for letting me email you. I have to vent, as I am so distraught about all of this. Lois Smith
9/11 and government conspiracy theories
Man i rember 9-11 like it was yesterday, man how manypeople were like me that morning driving to work with no fucking clue. That this day would end our freedom and ruin our respect and confidence in our government. What i wanna know is what is the government being truthful about? All they care about is $. What makes any of us think our vote even counts legitimately anymore? Fire and police swore up and down that day on 9-11 that secondary explosions took the towers down after the fact. Lets go deeper JFK Hmmm trouble on this 1 too Vietnam and the Cuban missle crisis War=$. JFK was soon killed after he said he was withdrawing from Vietnam..... Those pricks will do anything to earn a buck. Hmm we also got Pearl Harbor, Cmon people knew in Europe that a huge A@# Japaneese ship fleet vanished from Japan. Even our own military, Our government was not f#$%in retarded anyways they knew that after they withdrew all that crude oil in trade with Japan They would have no choice but to attack us. I don't know so many F$%^ed up things our goverment has done through the years. And it should be clear how much they care about us Fu$% they cant even get a medical care pakage together for us or heres another one the 'No child left behind act' LAWL ya things have only gotten cheaper, the pricks only get richer. Hell i bet if we did family tree on the politcians of the american government from the beginning I bet you would find allot of simular trees.....
Right on
Your whole comment is even better when reading it as if Barry White is reading it. Hilarious! Anyway, totally agree but the thing is, and this is sad, but even if you published this in your local paper, had movie night out and paid for everyone and showed them the video about #7 as I've seen it and heard the audio from Silversnake himself and dowloaded the truth to them they still would not do a damn thing about it. The majority of people are asleep and if they woke up they'd be scared shitless so what do you do ya know? I think the 1/3 of the people who think it was in inside job should get together and form our own government with our own currency. Think about it, a new currency would make our stock go way up:) Peace
None are more hopelessly
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
What calculations did you do?
What calculations did you do? Can we see your working's? I've also done extensive calculations, and have concluded that anyone dumb enough to believe that shit is either brain dead or, more often than not, trying to satisfy their own ego by making out that they are more knowledgeable or wise than the entire liberal media, who have almost unanimously condemned the theory. If you want to see Loose Change get exploited for what it really is, check out the BBC's excellent conspiracy files on google films. In debunks the inside job argument to spectacular effect; to the point where it exposes Loose Change for what it really is; a weakly put together, inaccurate, unfounded (although cleverly manipulated) piece of utter rubbish dreamt up by a small group of masturbatory fuckwits in between Deep Space 9 wanking sessions. Truly, truly pathetic. I hate the Neo Conservative Republican movement, but why is there such a disparity between the attention on this theory, and the numerous war crimes that they have committed, but haven't yet been held accountable for. The answer is simple; the conspiracy theory, is almost always more fascinating than the reality. Read some credible literature from some established authors, such as Palast, Chomsky (no they're not Zionists) or Pilger. They tend to be more accurate than a crap film made by a guy who every now and again spunks on his own monitor after watching Dr Spock perform a particularly boner-inducing shoulder grab. The ill conceived notion that 9/11 was a crime committed by the Americans themselves serves no purpose other than to dilute the discourse, therefore detracting focus away from the real issues. It's counter productive. Wake up.
Pull your head out of your ass
The 9/11 Commission and the N.I.S.T. both admitted that the Towers came down at freefall rate in air. Think about this for a moment. This is saying that the vast majority of skyscraper, all that steel and concrete, offered no more resistance to a falling mass than AIR. The only way in the real world that solid skyscrapers offer no more resistance to a falling mass is if something (explosives) disintegrates it to such a non-resisting state. Otherwise it's not happening even remotely close to freefall rate. In other words if the Towers were made out of butter they would have offered more resistance than air. Any solid would. In other words the N.I.S.T. and 9/11 Commission Report are offering information that would ordinarily be so damning as to cause a revolution if only they weren't addressing it to the American sheeple, the most brainwashed bunch of uneducated rubes imaginable who can't bear to use elementary school common sense if it deflates their programming.
Not to mention the mountain of other evidence showing the official myth of 9/11 is an absolutely ludicrous pile of shit like Bush being allowed to remain in Booker Elementary for over a half hour after being told of the "terrorist attacks" meaning his Secret Service had to have known the president wasn't even a possible target that morning, something they couldn't have known unless it was an inside job. Or the record amount of "put" orders on stocks that would take a huge hit in the 9/11 attacks, orders placed the week just before 9/11. Or the pre-9/11 warnings to the mayor of San Francisco and some top generals to avoid flying on 11 September 2001. Or the war plans for the invasion of Afghanistan on Bush's desk ready to be signed two days before 9/11 when such a war wouldn't have been politically possible without 9/11. Or the flight manifests claiming that none of the four purported airliners were even at half capacity, one even having about 45 passengers (!). Et cetera. 9/11 was painfully obvious as an inside job, a false flag attack to provide the pretext for the "War on Terror" which anyone who bothers to look into it can easily see is nothing but a series of wars for energy resource dominance. Pull your head out of your ass and realize what kind of a world we live in.
I like your comments and concur . . .
I am not sure United States citizens are brainwashed into not believing the truth of 9/11 or are just brainwashed to be apathetic in general. I fear it is the latter - they are subdued by pop culture and their workplaces generally suck any other inquisitive life out of them. Sometimes I wonder if the general public would even get off their asses if all the major networks and the courts admitted that explosives were planted. In other words, I think they would just go back to work, pay taxes, and if no body went to jail so be it - gimme my MTV.
google "codex alimentarius"
very well said excellent check out my youtube page tellthetruth777 alot of good stuff there more than anywhere youve ever seen we are all being lied to and faked out by the gov and media and this has been going on for a long time now but most are asleep.A corporate takeover of the world has been planned and carried out step by step little by little these are the elite illuminati bankers cia etc.the slow systematic destruction of every nation by war famine disasters which have been caused by the elite on purpose to smash the population of earth so they will beg and cry for one world government.These people are the sickest of the sick mostly all sociopaths and psychopaths who have power and wealth who have decided that there are too many people on earth they plan to exterminate 80-90 percent of the population and are have been doing so by poisoning the air food water land sea animals and people on purpose for this reason they have special meds food and water they take while everybody else is dying slowly being poisoned by food air water etc.
How are you able to see with
How are you able to see with your head so firmly lodged in your posterior?
It is amazing to me that with
It is amazing to me that with your education you did not know better on the day of sept. 11. Whaw! I said it loud and clear watching TV, there were so many screaming signs.
Love can be blind, total eclipse in your case. I don't mean it in mean way, don't be upset please.
I totally agree with you!!
I totally agree with you!!
hi
Interesting post and thanks for sharing. Some things in here I have not thought about before.
mole removal cream
im practicing for an argument, but heres my take on 9/11
To big brain on brad...
I'm writing a research paper on 9/11 as an inside job, and I was wondering if you've considered these facts...
-firstly, there is no instance in history in which a steel-frame high rise building has been brought down due to fires, no matter the temperature, size, cause, etc....so the hypothesis that the buildings collapsed due to combination of super hot fires and massive air plane impact is irrational and does not follow the scientific method if it is an unusual event that has never even happened before.
-the black clouds of smoke, which indicate oxygen starved fires, also indicate that this fire could not have generated a high enough temperature to even weaken steel.
-according to Underwriters Laboratories (company which provided the steel for wtc buildings), they certified the steel to withstand 2000 degrees F for up to three hours for building columns....not for 56 minutes for 90000 tons of steel...
-Even if the fires were hot enough to melt steel, for it to take 56 minutes to do so is absurd.
-If you want to talk about physics, here's some: For the towers to fall at virtually free fall speed, it would have to mean that the velocity of the falling matter increased as it fell. But this violates that physics rule...law of conservation of momentum.
-And also, the columns of the lower floors were progressively sturdier than those of the upper. So pancake theory in siam's pdf is implausible. Even if the pancake theory were plausible, the 47 core columns would have remained standing even though the floors collapsed.
-There was evidence of molten metal during the investigation that was ignored in the 9/11 commission report, obviously on purpose, because molten metal indicates use of explosives...
-The building collapsed not only at virtually free fall speed, but also vertically and symmetrically. This would mean that all 287 columns on each floor would have had to weaken to the point of collapse at the exact same instant, according to Jim Hoffman.
-Pulverization of virtually everything...a 110 story building collapses to seven stories of rubbel? Oh and those giant dust clouds...pulverized concrete...horizontal ejections of steel....
-oh, and the FBI decides to confiscate all the evidence and the steel immediately...not suspicious or anything
-And I almost forgot about Building 7...an exact replica of an implosion! But if it wasn't hit by a plane...oh, yes of course, debris fell on it and it was basically a blazing inferno......right. and sulfidized steel found in investigation? obvious evidence of controlled demolition. and it as well fell at free fall speed, vertically and symmetrically, except for the fact that it collapsed from the bottom up. again, clear evidence of controlled demolition--an implosion.
and i dont want to get into the pentagon.
But this has been pretty good practice for my argumentative paper! so no hard feelings! just trying to get the truth out there hah. and also, i didnt
Yea, what this person said!!
Yea, what this person said!!
It's been awhile
It's been awhile since I've done any research into this. Your link to Siam.org is pretty valuable. From what I can tell, the weight of the upper floors, once it was set free by the explosion and jet fuel that super heated the steel causing it to break, was too much for the floors below and it basically turned into a major instance of dominos.
Very sad indeed. I bet we're still recovering from the financial fallout. The whole travel medical insurance business is probably still under a lot of pressure to realign itself to what the risks of the future will be for people traveling to major metro cites.
And you probably think
And you probably think flouride is good for you lol, yet every dentist will tell you it is. It's time to wake up.
stupid
stupid answer because the buildings went down in a free fall....with no resistance
Naive..
The ones who are saying this wasn't an inside job are the same ones that haven't even looked at any evidence. There are mountains of evidence to support this being an inside job. Listen to the firefighters tapes from that day. Listen to what they had to say in an interview after the fact. Listen to all the eyewitness accounts of loud explosions seconds before the collapses. It's naive American's like the ones who say this wasn't an inside job that has allowed the U.S. government to get away with doing nothing but lying to the public. When "conspiracy theories" are supported by cold hard facts and evidence, they are no longer "conspiracies". If you knew anything about the construction of these buildings, you would know that a plane had no chance of collapsing those buildings; NO CHANCE. All three towers fell at free-fall speed and Silverstein admitted that WT7 was "pulled" due to mysterious damage that was never inflicted. All three towers fell exactly the same way. The facts are that WT7 was the control center for the whole operation and that's why it was destroyed. Silverstein had just bought the towers one week before 9/11 and the government knew for years that those towers needed to be repaired due to asbestos and corrosion. It was much cheaper to just bring them down and why not promote a war at the same time. Look at what they did with the death of Pat Tillman. They lied about how he died in order to promote the war with no reguard for his family or anything.
American government is crooked and corrupt from top to bottom. Conspiracy theories aren't from people making things up. If you took any time to review these "theories", you would see that they are all supported by FACTS and EVIDENCE. The government has been lying to us for decades because people are so damn gullible and on top of that, too trusting and lazy to do anything but take them for their word.
www.whatreallyhappened.com
Updated link.
Hello,
I was wondering if that link may be old? Could you provide an updated link for me, (if it's still up) I'm doing a little research, thank you.
Bri
911 conspiracy theory
Three links that should be the last word on 911 conspiracy theory
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/50427/911_conspiracy_theorists_echo_early.html?cat=62
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/991808/alex_jones_dnc_confrontation_with_michelle.html?cat=8
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/728809/what_should_be_the_last_word_on_the.html?cat=9
give me a break
Where did you come up with these stats, asked ten of your moron friends. Let me guess we didnt land on the moon either, and Elvis is still alive. Anyone who says that our goverment blew up the towers in my presence gets a punch in the face. I would like to meet you in person for just this reason. So come on down.
Ok but..
That is why your government succeded in it.
Must be from Texas
Sorry Jack but a debate - especially on the internet doesn't really work that way. And to 'come on down' because your a seriously scary guy that us conspiracy theorists has better watch out for, doesn't really add up either. 36% of American's are suspicious of the US Government. Do you have any idea how many minority groups you would have to combine just to reach that number? And better yet how much higher this statistic is in foreign countries? When I lived in Japan I read a front paged article in the paper where the Japanese government refused all help in the Middle East war until the US allowed them to do an independent investigation of 9/11 - that request was denied.
- Besides gay bars aren't my scene. So why don't you go back to sucking on Bushes left testicle like the silly little flamer you are. ;)
hehe, awesome response to
hehe, awesome response to homo jack :)
I'll take that punch freely so long as you are willing to.......
Do a few things:
1. Stop Playing Pollyanna's little glad game and look at the facts OBJECTIVELY and without Jingoist sugar-plums dancing in your head.
2. Believe what you can prove, not what some newshead TELLS YOU that you see.
With a new president in place, perhaps you will believe it when Sears Tower falls in Chicago(Obama's HOME) over the next year or so when they finally decide to go after IRAN.(Sears just got new owners and is now the "BRITISH" WILLIS TOWER. And, it will now come falling down as it was planned to on 9/11.
3 GO to some of the more credible 9/11 truth sites and truly research some of their findings. SOMETHING is WRONG HERE and you have to be flat brain-dead not to see it.
4. Close your mouth, open your mind and let the truth take you wherever it will. THEN, have the courage to ACCEPT IT. THIS WAS MURDER of US CITIZENS BY UPPER LEVEL ILLUMINIST OPERATIVES in the BUSH administration.
The truth is the light. If after DOING THIS, you'll get your free punch. BUT, it you DON'T do the research.........................
I've got my Glock. I want a freebie too! At that point any refusal to see reality from you will prove to me that, it's time to cleanse the gene pool of the idiot flotsam.
peace
Oh Dear...
As a matter of fact the moon landing was fake too. There are no stars visible in the landing, the flag is waving and the walking effect was created in a studio. What bothers me is the thought-patterns you "followers" have, you just follow one path, you guys never question anything and that is the problem, even worse, you guys don't even at the very least consider such possibilities. I bet that if we lived back some hundreds of years ago you would be the guy telling me the earth is flat while I'm trying to explain to you that it isn't.
Remember how that played out? Anyone who even considered it was cast out and labeled "devil-worshipper" or some other term, perhaps it had to do a lot with Christianity because they really really believed the earth was flat and yet years later it was disbanded, this believe was changed, modern sciecne had caught up and so did the consensus of human logic, people finally understood that the earth was round not flat!
Isn't it funny how history repeats itself? The truth hurts people, they don't wish to seek it or rather know at all, for them ignorance is bliss, it's a code they abide to and anyone who speaks out of it is considered the "crazy guy" or the "bad guy".
To me that sounds a lot like a dictating country, call this country what you want, capitalist or not it is hidden communism, but we are distracted so much with the media and gadgets and fast-food restaurants, we're like hamsters on a wheel; going nowhere.
The very fact that you would "punch" someone in the face for saying otherwise shows your inability to discuss the matters professionally, it also shows that rationality isn't on your to do list, because if it were you would not even think about a physical confrontation but rather participate in a educational dialogue.
Another thing, this behavior of yours is seen a lot in pre-mature children, their logical and rational side isn't very much developed yet, ever wondered why little kids always fight for a possession?
Were as adults we behave more rational, less physical confrontations because let's face it; fighting only gets you bruises not intellectual information.
Furthermore I would also like to state that by no means I'm implying I would not confront someone physically if I needed to.
If it is necessary for my survival then I will defend myself, this also reminds me of the flight or fight response but in your case you feel threatened about words, words are not physical or can penetrate your mind's capacity for sanity. Again, when you say you would punch someone in the face, we can deduce that you indeed feel that your ideals and believes are threatened but instead of walking away you choose to fight, perhaps you're scared to know that you are wrong which lead to this thought of yours and thus explains why you would "fight" or resort to aggressive behavior. That's instinctual I guess.